Subcontracting Routing Operations
Not every job goes out whole. ianaiERP lets you hand one step of your routing — heat treatment, plating, coating — to an outside shop while the rest of the work order stays in your plant. The Subcontract list gathers those steps across all your work orders, and bulk sending puts many jobs for one vendor on a single purchase order.
Subcontract manufacturing must be switched on first — see Subcontract Manufacturing.
Overview
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Outsource One Step: A subcontract step pauses the work order at the vendor and resumes the routing when the work comes back.
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One Queue for Every Step: The Subcontract list shows which steps are ready to send, which need setup, and which are at a vendor.
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Bulk Sending: Send many pending work orders, or many ready steps, to one vendor on one purchase order, with a separate service line for each job.
Setting Up a Subcontract Step
On the routing, the operation definition, or the work order's Operation settings, set the step's Operation Type to Subcontract and fill in:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Subcontract Vendor | The contract manufacturer who does this step. |
| Subcontract Service Item | The active Service item the vendor's fee is billed through. |
| Expected Service Cost | The expected fee, used as the default when the step is sent. |
The step carries a Subcontract badge.
Sending One Step
On the work order's Routing table, a subcontract step shows Send to vendor in place of Start Now — or Complete setup while its vendor or service item is missing.
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Press Send to vendor to open Send operation to subcontractor.
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Subcontract vendor, Service item and Expected vendor unit cost are required and default from the step. Changes here apply to this dispatch only.
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Press Create subcontract dispatch. This raises the purchase order and, when your materials must travel, the material handoff.
The step then shows At vendor, with a link to its purchase order. The work order stays in progress. Receiving the full service quantity marks the step Operation complete and the routing carries on; a partial receipt leaves it at the vendor.
The Subcontract List
Where to Access: Manufacturing → Subcontract. Click a row to open its work order.
| Dispatch status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Ready to send | Vendor, service item and earlier steps are all in order. |
| Needs setup | Something is missing — hover the badge, or show the Issue column, for the reason. |
| Needs review | An earlier batch may already have created documents for it; resending is blocked until you review it in Batch history. |
| At vendor | Sent and not yet fully received. |
| Operation complete | The vendor's work has been received. |
The list opens showing Pending and In Progress operations that are Ready to send. Change Status or Readiness (Needs attention) to see the rest, or filter by Vendor, Service item, Ship from, Due date, Scheduled start, Department and Project code.
The row action adapts to what the step needs: Send to vendor, Set vendor and dispatch (no active contract manufacturer on the step), Set service and dispatch (no active service item), or Review batch history.
The Issue column explains a blocked row in plain words — for example, an earlier routing operation is incomplete, or the work order is not active for production.
Sending in Bulk
Bulk actions put many jobs on one purchase order, with a separate service line for each work order or operation, and move all company-supplied tracked materials on one shared outbound transfer. Both open the Subcontract batches dialog.
Whole work orders
On Work Orders, select pending work orders and choose Send to Subcontractor. Enter Vendor, Service item, Ship components from, Service fee per unit and, optionally, Due date, then press Review batch.
Ready operations
On Subcontract, select operations and choose Create subcontract dispatch. Vendor, service and unit cost come from each operation. When any selected operation has no vendor, the action reads Set vendor and dispatch, and the Subcontract vendor you choose replaces the vendor on every selected operation. Filter to one vendor and one ship-from location before selecting.
Review, then confirm
Review batch saves the selection and checks every job. Jobs that fail the check are excluded automatically and keep their issue details; untick any other job you want to leave out. Then press Send jobs now or Create subcontract dispatch. The batch runs on the server — you can close the dialog and reopen it later from Batch history.
Batch rules
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All jobs in a batch share the same vendor, warehouse, department and project.
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One operation per work order, and up to 200 operations (or 10,000 work orders) per batch.
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Bulk sending handles outside vendors and same-company warehouse jobs. Send related-company and drop-ship jobs one at a time.
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Batch history shows only the batches you created, and only their creator can confirm or retry them.
Common Problems
| Problem | What to do |
|---|---|
| An operation says Needs review | An earlier batch was interrupted after it may have created documents. Open Batch history, check the listed purchase order and transfer, and reconcile them. These jobs are never retried automatically, to avoid sending twice. |
| Confirm stays disabled in a batch | Every job failed the check, or the invalid jobs are still loading. Read the Issue column, fix the jobs, and review a new selection. After a batch has run, Retry failed jobs re-runs only the jobs that failed their check. |
| A step shows Complete setup | The step has no vendor or service item yet. Fill in Subcontract Vendor and Subcontract Service Item — the service item must be an active item of type Service. |